‘BioShock’ Is Coming… to iOS! Uh… What?

Irrational Games has ceased to be, but Take Two has BioShock and plans to continue the grand tradition. Apparently that will include iOS.

2K announced today, via Twitter, that BioShock is “coming soon for iOS.” That’s pretty much all we know, but it appears that 2K intends to port the original game to current or upcoming iOS devices.

You’re probably wondering “How the hell can a phone play back a triple-A console and PC game?” Well, technologically speaking, it’s not impossible. Apple’s current A7 processor is roughly equivalent to Intel’s Bay Trail Atom chips, and that processor can run BioShock with little issue. There might be some graphics acceleration issues; it will probably still look better on a PC. But yeah, current iOS hardware can probably run a seven year old game.

What we’re curious about will be the controls. Touchscreen controls are completely terrible for console-style games thanks to lag, as anybody who’s attempted a console game adapted for touchscreens can tell you. Unless they plan to seriously alter how the game plays and flows, basically this is going to be an incredibly iffy game without a controller handy. Considering they brought some of the Grand Theft Auto games to iOS, Take Two should really know this better than anybody.

I need to invest in a controller for just this issue. With both GTA3 and Vice City, there are some levels that are simply unplayable with touch controls, particularly the ones that require fast sniping.